The purpose of this study is to analyze how elementary teacher candidates learn to observe, notice, decompose, rehearse, and enact targeted small group reading instruction. The research questions focus on factors that enhance or inhibit pre-service teachers' scaffolding during small group reading instruction, as they enact and reflect on their own small group teaching, over a series of three lessons. Additionally, the research questions focus on if pre-service teachers feel more prepared for the next lesson and if there is evidence in their videos that their scaffolded instruction improves, as they go through the three teaching cycles with the same group of students. In this project, I used design-based research to investigate one literacy methods class, as teacher candidates learned to teach small group literacy instruction, over the course of a semester long literacy practicum. The data was analyzed using the small group framework from Essential Literacy Practices K-3 (Michigan Virtual University, n.d.), research-based reading prompts from Duke and Schutz (2017), and the framework for implementing instruction on a scale of help, from least support to most support (Wood et al., 1976; Lose, 2007). Possible implications of this research and future work are to determine if teacher preparation programs can strengthen novice teachers' small group literacy instruction, particularly do scaffolding actions in lessons, and if those moves help students learn to read and write.
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